Vintage Theme Tuesdays: Bed Dancers

From the first time I spotted a bed dancer (which may have been in the movie ) I’ve been intrigued by this interesting and unique part of minitrucking history.

From a fabrication stand point making a bed lift up, spin around, completely fly apart, and in some cases shoot flames is no small feat. Coupled with the fact that a miscalculation or failed part could lead to a dented bed, or worse a smashed cab, it’s a wonder bed dancing caught on at all since it really has no practical application. Yet miraculously it did and actually still survives to a much, much, smaller degree today.

Some of you would rather the trucks in today’s post stay lost in time, but indulge me a bit because I’ve held this one back as long as I could.

In my searches for bed dancers this s10 known as Schizophrenia came up repeatedly

Over the top, extreme, and intricate was certainly they way to go for a lot of these buildsI believe this is considered a 4 stage z-rackThe popularity of bed dancers helped them cross over into the world of Skateboarding……as well as the world of BMX

Japan seemed to be pretty into it as a lot of the vintage videos I found originated there

These videos are both state side with the later being from Hawaii

Bed dancers and lowrider styling cues seem to have gone hand in hand

I can’t even begin to imagine the man hours in this

If memory serves me correctly this truck is a current day survivorAs is this oneFor those of you curious how it all works here is Solid Works rendering I spotted on layitlow.com

Model Bed dancers are also somewhat of a popular sub niche, I remember this build blowing my mind back in 2004 or so

Today things have gone more the way of the tilt than the dancerOf course there are still those who will take a little from column a and a little from column b and put it into one package

I stumbled across this site as I was looking for various ways to thing my bed to the side: bagged, boddied, shaved and laid 01 ranger if you Google “clenzer72” you can see some pics and videos.
All my air management fuel cell and battery are under the bed so being sick and tired of crawling on my back for ten years I think its time for easier access’ it can show my powder coated frame and other things that often never get noticed.
Thanks for the links’ brought back some memories!

I ran across this article while doing research on my Z-rack build. I’m building a 90 GMC Sierra with a scissor lift and z rack setup. I plan to debut this truck at the Battle in Bama show May 2018. It is held in Mobile, Al at the battleship.